# 394
In the world of virology, and avian flu, there are some voices you simply can’t ignore. Robert Webster is one of those voices.
Sometimes known as the Flu Hunter, Dr. Webster has accumulated more honors than can be listed here. He holds the Rose Marie Thomas Chair in Virology at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and was largely responsible for the initial eradication of bird flu in Hong Kong in 1997.
This, from a Bloomberg report yesterday.
Bird Flu Control Measures Have `Failed,' Webster Says (Update1)
By John Lauerman
Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) -- The resurgence of avian influenza among poultry and people in Asia and Africa shows international control measures have ``failed,'' a U.S. expert said.
Many countries still lack crucial testing programs to spot the virus as it appears in local flocks, and wait for birds to die before they begin response measures, said Robert Webster, a flu researcher at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
Each outbreak of the flu in birds, people and animals such as cats and pigs raises the possibility that it will mutate into a form that spreads quickly in people, Webster said. A resurgence of infections in countries such as Japan, South Korea and Thailand confirms that control efforts that appeared effective still need to be strengthened, he said.
``To me it means that we've failed,'' Webster said today in an interview in Washington. ``It's a lack of knowledge and political will to get at the source of the virus.''
Researchers gathered in Washington today at a conference on seasonal and pandemic flu. Health officials have said the bird flu spreading in Asia might become contagious in people, possibly setting off a pandemic as deadly as one that killed about 50 million people in 1918.
The H5N1 virus has infected at least 270 people and killed 164 of them, according to figures released Jan. 29 by the World Health Organization. WHO confirmed a death in Nigeria yesterday, the first human death from the disease in Sub-Saharan Africa.
``It's a general failure,'' Webster said. ``I'm not pointing the finger at anyone; I've also failed. We as a whole have failed to understand the ecology of H5N1 well enough to control it.''
The remainder of the article is well worth reading.
In it, Michael Perdue, Director of the WHO’s Global Influenza Program, describes how the H5N1 virus has spawned as many as 1600 variations.
And Ron Fouchier, a virologist at Erasmus University in the Netherlands, speculates that the deadly pandemic strain may already have developed, but may simply not have had an opportunity to infect the right host.
Serious scientists, with serious concerns.
